Heaven or Hell? I Can't Tell
by aspiringauthor08
Summary: Dean Winchester finds himself dead...again. Can he return to Earth to help Sam with the assistance of Ash and a new friend, the psychopathic angel Andie? The first in a series that explores what happens when a cupid intervenes in the lives of the Winchesters.


Heaven or Hell? I Can't Tell.

"Son of a bitch," a gravelly voice says from heap on the floor. The dark, wrinkled leather jacket looks like a completely out of place stain on the otherwise all white surroundings. The jacket begins to move as the man wearing it pushes himself up off the floor. The face of Dean Winchester finally appears. Pretty soon, he jumps to his feet and whips his head around scanning his surroundings. There's not much to look at however, because Dean finds himself in an all-white hallway. White floor, ceiling, walls, and white doorways lining the hall.

Dean tries very hard to remember how he got here, but it just keeps slipping further and further away, like trying to remember a dream after just waking up. So instead, he weighs his options: he could either sit here and die of boredom, he can go through the one of the doors to see what unimaginable horrors probably await him on the other side, or he can follow this creepy stretch of hallway and hope that he finds some answers at the end of it. He decides that following the hallways was probably the most logical thing to do, so he starts walking.

There are no clocks or windows along the hallway, so Dean has no idea how long he's been walking, but it feels like forever. He isn't tired despite walking for so long, but he decides to take a breather nonetheless because he wants to think of what to do next. As he begins to sit down to plan his next move, a terrible headache hits him like a truck and he collapses, squeezing his eyes tightly shut and rubbing his forehead.

When the headache begins to dull ever so slightly, Dean opens his eyes to find that his surroundings have changed completely. Deans finds that the all-white hallway has morphed into the night sky above him, a forest of trees all around him, and an old country road beneath him. He blinks his eyes to find that he is now traveling down the same road in his black Impala with Sam sitting next to him. He can just barely remember this moment, it was from what he thinks is earlier that day. He and Sam were on a hunt, just like any other one. Dean is still slightly in shock until Sam starts talking and snaps him back to reality, or a close equivalent.

"Alright, so apparently, this old house is believed to be haunted by the ghost of Gregory Wilcox. I guess he found out that his wife was having an affair on Valentine's Day, so he killed her, then himself. Now every year on this day, he kills any girls that come into the house with the knife he used to kill his own wife. It's weird though, eye witness accounts say that there are a bunch of ghosts, not just one. Also, more recently, it seems that the ghost doesn't care about just killing girls anymore, it kills anyone that enters the house. And, to top it all off, Greg was cremated, so we have no remains to burn," Sam tells him in a confused voice.

"Well, he must be tied to an object in the house," Dean says, remembering exactly what he said earlier that day. "Also, most of the eye witnesses are teenage boys who bring girls to this house to impress them on Valentine's Day. If I survived a ghost attack, I would say that I beat a hundred ghosts instead of just one. Definitely more badass. Anyway, let's hurry up and gank the son of a bitch. I've got plans for this wonderful holiday," Dean says, referring to his Valentine's Day tradition of hanging out at skeevy bars picking up on the recently single and desperate chicks in there.

For some reason, as they are driving, a sense of panic comes over Dean, like he knows that something is about to go wrong, even though it sounds like a pretty cut and dry case for the two expert hunters. The panic begins to increase as they pull up to the house and get their gear ready to head in.

They enter the house, salt guns at the ready, preparing to get rid of yet another vengeful spirit, just like they've done what seems like a thousand times before. But, there's something different about this one. The boys have been a little busy trying to stop the impending war between Heaven and Hell that they neglected to notice that the other spirits may have been more than just the exaggerations of teenage boys. While Gregory Wilcox was alive, there was a string of disappearances in the same town that he lived in, and all of them occurred on or around Valentine's Day. Five girls, young and beautiful, vanished over twenty years. The last disappearance was very near to the time that Gregory Wilcox died, and there were never anymore after he died. The bodies were never recovered.

The Winchester boys were unprepared for what was to happen next. They entered the house and decided to split up. Dean was talking to main floor and the cellar and Sam had the second floor and the attic. It was difficult to know what to look for in this giant house where anything could be the one that that is holding Gregory Wilcox to this house.

As Dean is searching in the basement, he feels a cold spot, just where he knew it would be. He feels something behind him, so he turns around and sees the spirit of a young blond girl, hate smeared on her face. "You could've helped us. No one helped us," the girl hisses as she closes her hand on Dean's throat.

"Sammy!" Dean yells, but not very loudly as he can feel his airways constricting under the pressure from the ghost's grasp.

"Little busy up here!" Sam yells back as he is fighting Gregory Wilcox's ghost two floors above.

Dean manages to pull up his salt gun and pull the trigger as the edges of his vision begin to redden from the lack of oxygen. The ghost vanishes before his eyes and Dean collapses to the ground in a coughing fit. Little did he know that two more ghosts were approaching behind him.

"We screamed for years," one of the female spirits said, wearing only rags on her body. Dean whips around and sees the two new ghosts, eyes wide with shock.

"We begged everyone who came here to help us, but no one ever did. They just screamed and ran until he found them and killed them, just like he killed us," the other ghost explains as they drift closer and closer to Dean.

"I can help you," Dean says to them in response. "I will help you."

"It's too late," the first ghost says with a terrifying smile creeping across her face. "We don't want help anymore. We don't want peace. We want revenge on all the people that have never helped us. Now, we kill too."

Dean shoots at the first ghost, but she disappears just before the salt could vaporize her. Dean shoots at the other one, but she does the same. Suddenly, before he knows it, there are five of them surrounding him. This was way more than either he or Sam were expecting on this hunt. He starts shooting, but he knows that he is getting short on salt rounds. The girls start converging on him as Dean can hear Sam running down the stairs.

"Run, Sammy, get out of here," Dean yells, just like he did before, just as he uses his last salt round. Sam runs down the stairs just in time to see Dean fall to his knees as the life is sucked out of him by the first ghost he saw.

A splitting headache comes over Dean once again as he finds himself back in the all-white hellhole. He finally realizes where he is, he's dead…again. At least this time he actually isn't in Hell though so I guess things could be worse. He also realizes that he is no longer sitting on the floor of the hallway. He is reaching his hand out, getting ready to push open one of the doors. His hand is on the door just before a body flies at him from his left and tackles him to the ground.

"Don't open the damn door, you fool," the brave hero with the voice of a redneck says. "Once you're in, it's almost impossible to get back out, especially for you."

Dean grumbles to himself as he pushes this vigilante off him and gets a good look. "Ash? What the hell?" he says with surprise laced in his voice.

"Of course, you dumbass, who'd ya think?" he says with a chuckle. "Now, let's get you out of here."

"What's behind this door, Ash?" Dean asks while Ash draws some weird symbols, tainting the white walls. He still feels a pull towards the door directly in front of him as if it was whispering his name, drawing him in.

"You," Ash says like the answer is plain as day. As he says this, he presses his hand on the symbol he drew and a door appears, this one black. Dean looks at him skeptically, but Ash just shrugs and pushes the door open. A bright light comes from the door and Ash steps into it. Dean, still unsure if he can trust this heaven Ash, sees no better options for getting back to Sam, so he follows.

He is blinded by the light when he enters, but when his eyes adjust, he finds himself in what looks just like the Roadhouse, which he knows burned down. Everything was the same as it had been on Earth, but it just felt weird. It felt like a memory instead of the real thing, and the real thing is always much better. The smells were all there, the dirt and grime, but it still wasn't the Roadhouse.

"Nice to see you again, Dean," Ash says as he settles in at the bar. "What can I get for ya?"

"I'll take a beer and a way out of here," Dean replies itching to get back to help Sam with that case, if he is even still alive. "How did you find me anyway?" Dean asks Ash as he cracks open his beer. Unlike the Roadhouse itself, the beer tasted just like it did back on Earth, this was no cheap imitation.

"I've got a little Winchester tracker set up for the many times you dumbasses get yourselves killed. Plus, it helps that the angels won't shut up about you," Ash answers with fake annoyance followed by a laugh. "And to answer your next question, no, Sam is not dead," Ash says almost reading Dean's mind. "But if you stay up here any longer, you'll be stuck here like me. You really pissed those angel dicks off, didn't ya?"

"Ah, you know me," Dean says with a half-smile. He only just recently found out that angels are real. He can hardly believe their existence, much less that they need him for anything.

"Well, don't worry," Ash says. "Help is on the way."

"You need help?" Dean says sounding surprised. "You listen to angel radio and have a Winchester tracker. Seems like you have everything pretty much under control up here."

"Hey, I haven't been here very long, we need a professional. All I can do it hope around from heaven to heaven, but I don't know everything…yet," Ash says with a mischievous smile. If anyone was going to figure out all the secrets of Heaven, it would be Ash.

"Wait, what do you mean from heaven to heaven? Isn't there only one?" Dean ask Ash.

"Ugh, I have explained this to you each time you are up here, but nothing ever sticks," Ash says, jokingly exasperated. "Heaven is more like a collection of everyone's personal paradises are shoved up against one another. Those were the doorways you saw when you arrived. The one that was pulling you toward it was your heaven. Most people are stuck in their own, but I've learned a few tricks up here."

As he says this, there is a rhythmic knock at the door. Dean jumps to his feet and reaches for the weapon that he doesn't have while Ash just laughs at him. "Cool it, Rambo," Ash says still laughing as he goes to answer the door. "Password?" he asks.

An exasperated sigh come from the other side of the door accompanied by an eye roll and a cocked hip. A muffled female voice says what Dean can make out as, "Dr. Badass is in." Apparently, this was the correct password because Ash threw the door open and in walks a young girl, about twenty-five years old or so, with tanned skin, long, curly black hair, huge brown eyes, petite frame, and two cases of Ash's favorite beer in each hand. When Ash opens the door, she tries very hard to maintain an annoyed look on her face, but she ends up cracking a smile.

"Your angel proofing is getting better," she says. It took me a whole two minutes to break down and reconstruct. She throws her arms around Ash, with the beer still in hand and they give each other a big hug.

Finally, she realizes that there is another person in there. She loudly coughs, trying to draw attention to the elephant in the room, aka, Dean Winchester. Ash releases her and takes the beer from her hands, heading over to the bar. He was getting some amusement out of knowing more than this mystery girl, so he does nothing but chuckles to himself until she finally asks, "Who might this be?"

"Oh, who, him?" Ash says, still obviously enjoying this moment. "Andie, meet Dean Winchester, I'm sure you've heard of him. Dean, meet the baddest angel to ever exist, Andie."

Upon hearing the word angel, Dean starts to back away defensively. Andie just laughs at him and rolls her eyes. "I see you've met the family then," she says with a laugh. "Believe me when I say I'm nothing like those dicks."

"I second that," Ash says. "Andie here has helped teach me a lot of the tricks I know for how to survive in Heaven.

She gives a modest shrug as she cracks open a beer and holds it out for Dean like a peace offering. "He doesn't need much help. Ash here is pretty damn smart, as I'm sure you know. For a human that is," she says with a wink. "Well, it's a pleasure to finally meet the great Dean Winchester, I've heard a lot."

Dean can only imagine what terrible things she has probable heard about him, so he changes the subject. "How did you two meet?" Dean asks. He still instinctively leans away from Andie, but who can blame him?

"Well," Andie starts, "Ash and I are pretty similar in the sense that we hate angels and want to avoid them at all costs. Angels don't really like when humans hope from heaven to heaven, and angels don't really like me, so we were both on the run from them when we found the same place to hide. We've kept in touch since then."

"A match made in heaven," Ash says with a sarcastic dreamy smile on his face.

"Oh, shut up," Andie says with a smile on her face as she gives him a playful punch in the arm.

"Ok, then," Dean continues, "what's with the beer?"

"I guess it's just a mutually beneficial situation," Andie says. "I need to consistently keep moving to avoid the angels on my tail, and Ash here needs beer, so I pop down to Earth from time to time to pick some up. And hey, I'm not complaining as long as I get some of the profit," Andie says as she takes a sip from her own can.

"But this is heaven," a confused Dean says. "Are you telling me they don't have beer," he continues with genuine panic in his voice. "Do they not have any alcohol?"

Andie and Ash both laugh at Dean's apparent distress. "Of course, they have alcohol in heaven, don't worry. The problem is, everything in heaven is maintained by the angels. If your beer starts to run low, they are the ones that replenish it. They create everything here, like this building for example. But, they are only angels. Angels don't need to eat, so they have no appreciation for how food should taste. Angels don't need to drink, so they have no clue what makes beer so perfectly delicious and so human. Angels have no emotions, so they can't quite recreate all of the little precious details that make the Roadhouse feel like home. They just can't grasp sentimental value. So, their beer is a crappy imitation of what's on Earth."

"And what?" Dean asks with skepticism leaking through his voice. "You're claiming to be different from the rest of these angels even though you are one yourself?"

Ash looks upset with Dean's tone when talking to Andie, but she doesn't seem to mind. "It's ok, Ash. Dean has every right to not believe me. I wouldn't believe me after meeting the rest of my family," she says with a forced chuckle and sad eyes. "Think of it this way, Dean: Human beings are generally good people. They may lie, cheat, and steal, but they aren't evil. They feel guilty after doing something wrong, they have a conscience. They _feel_ ," Andie says. "Now think of a human who has no emotions, who doesn't feel guilt when they have done something bad. I believe you call these people psychopaths, right?" After a nod of the head from Dean, Andie continues. "Ok, now consider an angel: no feelings, cold, hard, doesn't care for humans, only orders. But what if an angel was different? What if there was an angel who had feelings, who gave a crap about human beings, who thought for herself?" Andie asks. Then, she sticks her hand out to Dean and says, "Hi, I'm Andie, the psychopathic angel."

Dean's mouth dropped in disbelief, but he shook her hand nonetheless. He didn't know what to think. The angels that he had met up to this point were dicks. But, Ash seemed to trust her, and Dean trusts Ash. Ash was laughing at Andie's description of herself as a psychopathic angel when he said, "Alright, well let's get to it. Can you get this dumbass home or not Andie?"

Now it was Andie's turn to laugh. "Do you remember who you are talking to, Ash? Of course, I can." She rises from her seat getting ready to leave, but Dean is still uneasy.

"Wait, Ash you're not coming with?" Dean asks trying to not let his distrust be too obvious.

"Nope, I've got to stay here compadre," Ash replies. "Trust me though, you're in good hands here," he says nodding to Andie.

Reluctantly, Dean realizes that this angel is probably his best chance out of here, so he gets up as well. "Ash, don't drink all that beer, you better save it," Andie says to him sternly. "Not sure when I'll be back this time."

"Just make sure you do come back," Ash says to her, showing genuine concern for her.

"Always do," Andie responds, but not in a smug way. She sounds like she is just as unsure as he is as she is writing strange symbols on the wall just like Ash was doing earlier. "Ok now, Dean. Let's go. I've got one hell of a treat for you."

Dean and Andie leave through a door that she made appear, just like how Ash did, except this time the door is white. Dean hesitantly follows Andie through the light, just like she did with Ash, but he was definitely more afraid of what was going to be on the other side of this door. He shouldn't have been though, because he was met with the surprise of his life, or rather his death.

"The symbol will have disintegrated before Ash could copy it down," Andie said. "A little trick of my own. You see, each heaven has its own unique symbol, it's how the angels jump from place to place. I just happen to be very protective of this one, it's my favorite. Angels don't really have much of an imagination of their own, so they spend a lot of time in the memories of humans. I figured you might like it, too. We can't stay for too long, though. There's a hidden tunnel that will send you back to Earth that can only be used at midnight. And we cannot risk you being stuck here another night."

As Dean's eyes adjust, he looks up to see the night sky above them with thousands of stars shining brightly. They are standing at the foot of a short driveway which holds Dean Winchester's most prized possession: a 1967 black Impala. Dean's face conveys his surprise as he looks up and sees the house that he lived in as a child, the house that his mother died in.

Andie starts laughing at Dean's dumbfounded face, but not a mean sort of laugh. He had almost forgotten that she was even there. Through the window, he can see his mom and dad dancing in the living room. "What year is this," Dean asks Andie.

"1983, it's about three months after Sam was born," Andie answers. As she moves to sit on the hood of the Impala. She scoots to one side and pats the open spot next to her. "Well, don't you want to sit?" Andie asks Dean. "I promise I don't bite." Dean moves to sit by her and she hands him a beer from Ash's.

"If this is 1983, then where are Sam and I?" Dean asks, "My parent's heaven doesn't include us?"

Andie sighs and answers sadly, "Not necessarily. I've heard a lot about your mother, done my research. She really loves you boys. No, her ideal heaven would definitely include you. But, that's not how it works here. Angels keep everyone separated into their own personal heavens for crowd control. Imagine if you really loved someone, but they hated your guts. If they were together then one would be miserable for all eternity and the other would be thrilled. There are, of course, special circumstances like your parents, where I think they would have destroyed the entirety of Heaven if they were kept apart, but most aren't so lucky.

"That's why I come here," Andie continues with the shrug of her shoulders. "Look at your mom's eyes, really look." Dean does and he can see that while she is smiling and happily dancing with his dad, her eyes look sad. "She knows that something is missing, she still misses her boys. Those eyes remind me of why I hate the angels. Not just because of how little they care for the humans on Earth, but also because of how they treat the souls in Heaven. You guys are like animals in a zoo, closed off from one another, while the angels hop from exhibit to exhibit getting entertainment from you. This isn't paradise."

"They can't see us, can they?" Dean asks, disappointed because he already knows the answer.

"No, I'm sorry, Dean. We are hidden from them. I couldn't make them see us even if I tried," Andie tells him sadly.

Dean finds himself staring at Andie in utter disbelief. He has never heard an angel convey such strong emotions before. He's starting to believe that she is different from the other angels. "So, what do you do when you come here?" Dean asks Andie.

"I listen to the music," she says as they listen to "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis Presley playing on the Winchester's record player in their living room. "I watch the stars and I watch them dance. I like to see how in love they are," Andie tells him.

"Thanks," Dean says to her.

"For what?"

"For bringing me here," Dean replies. "We could've gone to anyone's heaven. Hell, it would probably be safer because they would expect me to find this place, but you brought me anyway, even though you want to keep it a secret."

"Well, the angels are pretty confident that you would never be able to find this place. They keep it very well hidden, even from other angels, because you and your brother find yourselves up here a lot. And I figured that you have as more of a right to this place than I do, it's your home."

"How were able to find it then?" Dean asks her.

"Oh, Ash didn't tell you?" Andie says, "I'm a genius."

Dean starts laughing at that one. "So, you are a genius angel with emotions who actually

likes humans? The surprises just don't seem to end with you do they?" Dean says.

"What can I say? I'm an enigma," Andie says with a smile.

"No really, though," Dean says, seriously, "who are you? Why are you on the run?"

Andie sighs once again and says, "Honestly, it's best if you don't know," which just makes her seem even more mysterious.

They simply sat there watching the stars, drinking their beers, and listening to the music. Suddenly, Andie jumps to her feet, moves to stand in front of Dean, and holds out her hand.

"What?" Dean asks, surprised by the sudden movement.

"Dance with me," Andie says back to him with a playful smile on her face.

"Uhh, I don't think so," Dean says completely taken aback. "I don't dance."

"Come on," Andie pleads with her hand still outstretched. "I'm usually here swaying to the music by myself. It would be nice to actually have a partner tonight. Are you scared?"

To be honest, Dean really doesn't dance. He never went to any dances with girls during school because who would ask the new kid who's only staying for a week to the homecoming dance? And dancing is not exactly in the job description of a hunter. He could tell that Andie was not going to take no for an answer though, and he was grateful that she brought him here. So, Dean reluctantly took her hand and got off the Impala.

She starts laughing at him because his faced showed just how uncomfortable he actually was. Dean would take a werewolf or a wendigo any day over this. But, as it turns out, he wasn't so bad. He put one hand on Andie's lower back and kept the other in hers as she put her free hand around his neck. She continued to laugh at his discomfort, but eventually, after a few stepped-on toes, they found their rhythm. Dean had never felt more at peace than he did while holding Andie in his arms and watching his parents dance together.

All too soon, however, Andie breaks the hold and tells Dean that they have to leave. He swears that he can see regret in her eyes and he knows the feeling. He knows that he has to get back to Sam, but he almost wishes that he could have stayed there dancing forever.

Andie walks over to the garage door and starts drawing another symbol. "Now, some angels are going to be guarding this place, but probably not too many. They know of the tunnel and its generally vicinity, but not the exact location, a fact that we can take advantage of. But it also happens to be located in the armory of Heaven, so it's pretty well protected, but the nice thing about angels is that you usually don't have to worry about disobeying orders. I'm going to try to get us as close as possible. As soon as this door opens, we have to start running."

"What if they follow me down the tunnel?" Dean asks, worried that he might be bringing an army of angels down on he and Sam once he returns to Earth.

"Built for humans only," Andie replies, still working on the complex symbol and adding some of her own blood to it.

"What about you?" Dean wonders.

"I am the distraction. Trust me, they have been hunting me for years. They want me almost as much as they want you," Andie says. Andie turns to see concern in Dean's eyes, so she continues saying, "Don't worry about me." She waves a dagger at him that is connected to her belt. "I have a few tricks up my sleeve." She finally finishes drawing the symbol and looks back at it, satisfied. "Alright, 11:45, are you ready Dean?"

"Let's get out of this hellhole," Dean tells her. Next thing he knows, Andie grabs his hand and pushes on the symbol. The night sky is suddenly filled with bright light and the pair steps through to greet what's on the other side.

Dean had barely stepped through when he feels Andie pull on his hand and he is slammed up against the wall. "Ok," she whispers, "most of the angels ae out looking for you, so there shouldn't be very many here. No one is going to suspect that you know where the tunnel is because no one will even consider that an angel is helping you. Here," she says as she hands him her dagger. She turns to face him, putting her back to the hallway behind her. "The tunnel is in that corner over there, but I need to perform a spell to open it, not very complex, it is built for humans…"

As she says this, she feels a hand on her back and a sharp pain deep within her chest. She sees Dean lunge forward and hears the sound of her dagger tearing into flesh. She whips her head around to see an angel fall to the ground. The body starts to glow, which is what always happens when an angel dies, and it causes the whole armory to shake. The room begins to spin for Andie and she is just about to hit the ground before Dean catches her and props her upright.

Dean starts whispering her name because he knows that he can't shout. "What is it, Andie?" Dean asks, concerned not only for her well-being, but also because he needs her to be able to escape. Finally, the room stops spinning for Andie and she is able to regain her balance. She looks at Dean and realizes what had just happened.

"Dean," she says, genuinely distressed, "what have you done?"

"What?" Dean asks, "was he a friend of yours?" He wasn't, Andie had never met him before, but she knows his kind. Dean just killed a cupid, a cupid that had just struck her. Her face contorts into one of horror. She knows how cupids work. They are supposed to strike two people at the same time, but the cupid wasn't able to lay a hand on Dean. She looks at Dean and his face is almost radiating, it is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.

"Doesn't matter," Andie says as she shakes her head to try to regain focus. The only thing she can think of now is Dean. "Someone will have heard that," she says and she grabs his hand again and runs to the corner with the tunnel.

Andie's hands are flying faster than the ever have before as they can hear angels coming to investigate what happened in the heart of the armory. Dean stands over her protectively as she works to perform the spell, the bloody dagger in his hand ready to fight. She is nearly finished when the angels finally find them.

"Dean Winchester," one of them yells from the other side of the room as he is walking towards them with his partner in tow. "Our boss would like a word with you." He has a smug look on his face until he sees the dagger in Dean's hand. "Where did you get that?" The smug façade drops and is quickly replaced with anger and just a little bit of fear.

"From me," Andie calmly says as she pushes her hand on the symbols that she had just created. A hole opens in the ground with blue light coming out of it. Andie runs in front of Dean and grabs the dagger from him. She pushes him toward the hole as the angels run at them.

Right before Dean goes over the edge, Andie does something completely reckless and stupid. She spins him around and kisses him. She pulls away from him, his eyes full of shock. "Run like hell," she tells him, and she pushes him over the edge.

She turns around the meet the two angels in front of her. "Who are you?" the obvious superior of the two asks. "You can't be human, not with this knowledge, but I know the identity of every angel in existence. Why is your face hidden from me?"

"Guess you're not as smart as you look, Jericho," Andie says, rubbing it in his face that she can see who he is, but he is left in the dark. This only served to make him angrier, so he charged at her. Before he reaches her however, Andie takes her dagger and makes an incision in her abdomen. She reaches her hand in and pulls out her grace, screaming the entire time. Grace outside of its host can be a very powerful and dangerous weapon, so Jericho backs away. With the ball of energy that makes her an angel in her hand, she turns and leaps into the hole that Dean just fell into, just as it was about to close.

Dean wakes up in the old house that had at one point in time belonged to Gregory Wilcox. His body is sore and tired from having just died, but he looks up to see Sam standing over him.

"Sammy?" Dean says, "what just happened?"

Sam lets out a huge sigh of relief. "You were dead, Dean. I mean like really dead."

"How is that possible?" Dean asks, "and how did you survive if I didn't?"

"I came down the stairs as soon I saw the ghost kill you. The other ghosts started coming after me, but the one that killed you stopped them. She told them that when she was killing you, she saw that you were telling the truth, that we could help them. Three of them went up to stop Wilcox and the other two showed me where they were buried beneath the floorboards. They told me that Wilcox was the serial killer that murder them and that he kept trophies of his kills. After I salted and burned their bones, I found the trophies and burned those. Wasn't easy, I had to get past Wilcox and he was not a pleasant old man, but he's gone now. How did you make it back?"

"I don't know," Dean says. "I don't remember anything."


End file.
